Dan's NC track toy

Dan · Postby **Dan** » Mon Apr 20, 2015 9:13 pm

I went down to Wakefield Park for Round 2 of the CAMS NSW Supersprints yesterday, the weather forecast was for rain but it held out till mid-afternoon which was great for everyone that was driving.

Unfortunately for me on my third lap of the first session my rear diff crossmember snapped which caused the rear driveshaft to go and create a big oh-shit moment at Turn 3. It's one of those things you can't expect but luckily the car is ok and with Daniel Deckers help today it's fully repaired with new parts and back at my place

Still managed second place in 2B with only 2 hot laps managing a 1.12.70 which was a long way from my PB and what I was hoping to get, but for two laps I can't complain and it's some good points.

A video:

On the tilt tray:

The carnage:

cwto24 · Postby **cwto24** » Tue Apr 21, 2015 12:17 am

Wow, thats some serious damage!

At least the car is ok!

Guran · Postby **Guran** » Tue Apr 21, 2015 8:00 am

Glad to hear that you're back on the road. So I gather the diff was OK.

Dan · Postby **Dan** » Tue Apr 21, 2015 10:25 am

Thanks guys, very happy to have it back on the road.

And Bryan, nope it looks like the diff is ok which was good news!

Regie · Postby **Regie** » Tue Apr 21, 2015 1:34 pm

holy crap,

thats the second one I've herd crack. your one the fist N/A powered one though.

How many kms do you have on the car?

Might check mine next time its in the air.

Dan · Postby **Dan** » Tue Apr 21, 2015 1:44 pm

It's got 96k on the clock, it's done 20 or so track days though and has pretty stiff suspension so I'd say that is a bigger contributor to it cracking in addition to the part maybe being a bit weaker than normal.

Snowmotion · Postby **Snowmotion** » Tue Apr 21, 2015 2:17 pm

That is a bit of chasing your tail once you start going stiffer in suspension.
I remember on my last car I put on stiffer sway bars and started snapping links, replaced the links with Whiteline links, and started snapping mounts for the links, put on stainless mounts and cracked my sub frame.
Went back to factory mounts as the sacrificial points as they were not expensive. (this was on a 1.8T car)

Dan · Postby **Dan** » Tue Apr 21, 2015 5:32 pm

I really do think this is a freak issue as Daniel Deckers said he hasn't had this problem before and his NC's are on sticker tyres, and are stiffer than mine.

I bent an end link when I had the sway bars on the stock suspension but since I put the coilovers in I haven't had any problems with stock end links, I'm the same as you I figure if it bends an end link that's probably saving something harder to fix and more expensive.

Dan · Postby **Dan** » Wed May 20, 2015 8:36 pm

I've never paid for photos before but for some reason decided to get some at the last Supersprint round at Wakefield.

Of course that happened to be the day I only got 3 laps in before something broke but I was still pretty happy with the photos he took at turn 2 which show me going from the apex with a wheel up to the outside ripple strip

Dan · Postby **Dan** » Thu May 21, 2015 11:37 pm

I headed out to a Speed off the Streets day today at Wakefield Park with another Dan from the MX5 Club and one of his friends in a Skyline, with the forecast of rain earlier in the week we were lucky to get an overcast day with no rain!

Managed to take 1.37 seconds off my PB and got it down to a 1:10.11, I was circling around the track doing mid-10’s consistently so it seems like the time has come down to stay.

There was a really big time gain in taking a tighter line through the fishhook and cleaning up T3/4/5. There are still area’s I need to be more consistent in though so hopefully I can get down into the 9’s at the club day next Sunday

Here’s the video (finally figured out how to get current gear to be displayed too):

Dan · Postby **Dan** » Fri May 22, 2015 9:34 am

It's been a year since I started modifying and seriously tracking my MX5 and in that time I've done 16 track days.

After reading Phil's thread where he was looking at which mods gave the biggest gains I've kept records of my times and modifications as it's interesting to me and I thought it might be helpful for people thinking about modifying an NC to track it.

I'd say that Seat time, Datalogger, tyres and coilovers were the 4 best mods for me (colder weather seems to be worth a fair bit too :lol:

).

Wakefield:
1. May 28, 2014 - Whiteline Sway Bars, Nitto NT01 (215/45/17) - 1:15.22
2. Jun 01, 2014 - Whiteline Sway Bars, Nitto NT01 (215/45/17)- 1:16 (damp)
3. Jun 10, 2014 - Whiteline Sway Bars, Nitto NT01 (215/45/17), 4.1 FGR, BC V1 Coilovers - 1:16 (damp)
4. Jun 19, 2014 - Whiteline Sway Bars, Nitto NT01 (215/45/17), 4.1 FGR, BC V1 Coilovers - 1:13.81 (-1.41)
5. Jul 08, 2014 - Whiteline Sway Bars, Nitto NT01 (215/45/17), 4.1 FGR, BC V1 Coilovers - 1:12.45 (-1.36)
6. Jul 21, 2014 - Whiteline Sway Bars, Nitto NT01 (215/45/17), 4.1 FGR, BC V1 Coilovers - 1:12.11 (-0.34)
7. Sep 18, 2014 - Whiteline Sway Bars, Nitto NT01 (215/45/17), 4.1 FGR, BC V1 Coilovers - 1:12.60
8. Dec 6, 2014 - Whiteline Sway Bars, 4.1 FGR, BC V1 Coilovers, Hankook Z221 (215/45/17) - 1:13.7 (damp)
9. Dec 7, 2014 - Whiteline Sway Bars, 4.1 FGR, BC V1 Coilovers, Hankook Z221 (215/45/17) - 1:12.65
10. Feb 8, 2015 - Whiteline Sway Bars, 4.1 FGR, BC V1 Coilovers, Hankook Z221 (215/45/17), Headers, Exhaust, Tune - 1:11.48 (-0.63)
11. Apr 19, 2015 - Whiteline Sway Bars, 4.1 FGR, BC V1 Coilovers, Headers, Exhaust, Tune, Weds TC105N 17x8, Hankook Z221(235/45/17) - 1.12.70 (Mechanical failure after 3 hot laps)
12. May 22, 2015 - Whiteline Sway Bars, 4.1 FGR, BC V1 Coilovers, Headers, Exhaust, Tune, Weds TC105N 17x8, Hankook Z221(235/45/17) - 1.10.11 (-1.37)

SMSP GP:
1. Jan 28, 2015 - Whiteline Sway Bars, Hankook Z221 (215/45/17), 4.1 FGR, BC V1 Coilovers, Headers, Exhaust, Tune - Didn't time as it was dangerously wet
2. Feb 8, 2015 - Whiteline Sway Bars, Hankook Z221 (215/45/17), 4.1 FGR, BC V1 Coilovers, Headers, Exhaust, Tune - 1:53.75
3. Apr 5, 2015 - Whiteline Sway Bars, 4.1 FGR, BC V1 Coilovers, Headers, Exhaust, Tune, Weds TC105N 17x8, Hankook Z221(235/45/17) - 1.51.60 (-2.15)

SMSP South:
1. Apr 12th, 2015 - Whiteline Sway Bars, 4.1 FGR, BC V1 Coilovers, Headers, Exhaust, Tune, Weds TC105N 17x8, Hankook Z221(235/45/17) - 1.04.85

Magpie · Postby **Magpie** » Fri May 22, 2015 9:54 am

Nice data collection and helpful.

Cold weather gives denser air hence moe power, all for free

It would appear that seat time is the best, the mods add to confidence! Did the wider tyres help with grip?

Dan · Postby **Dan** » Fri May 22, 2015 10:59 am

Magpie wrote:Nice data collection and helpful.

Cold weather gives denser air hence moe power, all for free

It would appear that seat time is the best, the mods add to confidence! Did the wider tyres help with grip?

Yeh, seat time was the biggest gain by far and becoming better at data analysis over the last couple of months has made that seat time way more valuable as I know what to practice (goes back to the old quote "Practice does not make perfect. Only perfect practice makes perfect." - Vince Lombardi).

Wider tyres were a big gain, the extra corner speed you can carry more than makes up for the loss of speed on the straights. One thing you do need to be conscious of is using that extra grip though, it took me a bit of time to reset where the limit is.

Magpie · Postby **Magpie** » Fri May 22, 2015 11:19 am

I also agree that data analysis helps with learning if you can't get seat time, visualising your way around a track is starting to make me think more and more about what I need to do. Looking at other people's data also helps the visual process. I'm that kind of learner.

Based on your experience I may see if I can go a bit wider on tyres next time I decide to purchase some. However based on my current tyre collection I have enough for the moment...

Dan · Postby **Dan** » Sat May 23, 2015 9:54 am

Magpie wrote:Based on your experience I may see if I can go a bit wider on tyres next time I decide to purchase some. However based on my current tyre collection I have enough for the moment...

Ask people with the same car as there may be a difference for your model but I'm in the bigger is better camp especially for a car like yours with higher power (my car is only 104kw).

I'm actually thinking about going bigger next time and trying the 245/40/17 A050's (there isn't a similar sized Z221, the next size is a 255/40/17) which would give me a smaller rolling diameter and a bit more width, I'm waiting on another set of wheels so I might even get the chance to back-to-back test a fresh set of Z221's vs A050's.